This is for Tonight by Jessica Patrick

5*

Crafting YouTuber Andi needs money to go to SCU (presumably the fictional USC) with her twin brother, the same school where her parents met. Unfortunately, she doesn’t win the scholarship and can’t afford the tuition since they’re still paying off her father’s medical bills 5 years after his death. (Universal healthcare, anyone?) So they come up with the idea of filming a video at the Cabazon Music Festival (Coachella in disguise) in the hopes it’ll go viral and raise the funds she needs. The problem is that she’ll have to change her vlogger focus if she wants the money to keep rolling in.Jay Bankar has a hugely-successful YouTube channel that features him pranking people and being an all-around jerk and misogynist. When he and Andi meet the first night of the festival when he offers to help her set up her tent, the chemistry is instantaneous, that is, until she gets a good look at him in the light of the following day. She struggles to reconcile the nice guy with the vlogger she hates with a passion. As they begin to compete with each other in a scavenger hunt with the prize of interviewing the headliner band, one of the hottest in the country, she sees traces of that sweet guy hiding behind his sarcastic online persona. Can she believe him when he says it’s all an act, one designed to raise his own college funds? Is he worthy of her forgiveness after he disappoints her more than once, especially when she thinks about her father’s policy of “no second chances”?

Patrick’s debut novel will appeal to her internet-savvy, social media-obsessed teen audience. In addition to its enemies-to-lovers theme, it also explores sometimes rocky sibling relationships, the lingering grief of losing a parent, and the stress caused by a lack of funds which sometimes causes people to make questionable decisions, all set against the backdrop of a music festival. If you have teen patrons looking for a fun summer read, hand them this book. Highly recommended.

I received a complimentary ARC of this book from Swoon Reads through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed are completely my own.

Life's Too Short (The Friend Zone #3) by Abby Jimenez

4.5*


Trigger warnings for mental illness, drug addiction, and grief.

It’s extremely challenging to talk about this story without spoilers, so I won’t go beyond the basic set-up. Just know that it’s about two really kind, decent people, travel vlogger Vanessa Price and criminal defense attorney Adrian Copeland, the cousin of Josh from The Friend Zone (Book 1), who we first met in The Happy Ever After Playlist (Book 2) when he went on a double date with female lead Sloan Monroe. (We are given a nice catch-up with the two couples in this book.) Vanessa began her highly-successful YouTube channel after losing her older sister to ALS (a disease that also took her grandmother, mother, and aunt). She has a 50/50 chance of succumbing as well, so she doesn’t want to waste a single moment wallowing, choosing to travel the world instead. In her introductory video, she shares her intention to donate proceeds to ALS research.

She meets her next door neighbor Adrian after he knocks on her door at 4:00 a.m. to see if she can get her baby to stop crying. (It’s actually her niece who she’s fostering.) This leads to a fast friendship that quickly becomes serious, a true meeting of soulmates. However, the past trauma of losing parents, either through abandonment, death, or mental illness (her father is an extreme hoarder), has greatly impacted their way of dealing with life’s challenges. For Vanessa, it’s to push away negative thoughts, even if it means sometimes faking happiness. In Adrian’s case, it’s to maintain total control and bury himself in his work. Will they be able to adapt and change to give each other unconditional love or will they crash and burn? You’ll need to read (and cry a lot of tears) to find out.

I’d give this a 5*, but it put me through the emotional wringer, so I can’t be objective. All 3 books in this series have female protagonists dealing with life-altering (or, in this case, life-threatening) conditions. The romances are genuine, complex, and deeply-emotional and the men they love are supportive and willing to make sacrifices (in this case, eventually). However, Jimenez never lets her readers forget that life is fragile and that we’re all on this planet to make the best of bad situations and find joy amidst the disappointments and tragedies we’ll all face on the journey. As this title so aptly points out, life IS too short and we must live our best lives rather than dwelling on the inevitability of future loss. Although this is a standalone, I highly recommend reading the first two books as well because, despite the heavy subject matter, they are extremely well-written stories of loss, grief, love, and redemption.


I received a complimentary ARC of this book from Forever through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed are completely my own.